I don't know how I missed this story, but in reading up on the firing of manager Manny Acta Sunday night by my favorite sad-sack team, the Washington Nationals, I found yet another embarrassing item: during a game in April, two players — Adam Dunn and Ryan Zimmerman — had their team's name misspelled as "Natinals" (missing the "o") on the front of their jerseys. Both players switched jerseys during the game, but not in time for the TV commentators, bloggers, etc. to have their fun.
At 26-61, the "Natinals" have baseball's worst record, with the next-worst record being Cleveland's 35-54 mark, meaning the Nats are well on their way to another number one pick in the draft. Of course, if he's represented by Scott Boras, as their 2009 first selection Stephen Strasburg is, the Nats are either going to have to shell out many, many millions or lose his rights. It's almost a no-win situation either way, knowing how many drafted players never live up to their hype.
I don't know how I missed this story, but in reading up on the firing of manager Manny Acta Sunday night by my favorite sad-sack team, the Washington Nationals, I found yet another embarrassing item: during a game in April, two players — Adam Dunn and Ryan Zimmerman — had their team's name misspelled as "Natinals" (missing the "o") on the front of their jerseys. Both players switched jerseys during the game, but not in time for the TV commentators, bloggers, etc. to have their fun.
At 26-61, the “Natinals” have baseball’s worst record, with the next-worst record being Cleveland’s 35-54 mark, meaning the Nats are well on their way to another number one pick in the draft. Of course, if he’s represented by Scott Boras, as their 2009 first selection Stephen Strasburg is, the Nats are either going to have to shell out many, many millions or lose his rights. It’s almost a no-win situation either way, knowing how many drafted players never live up to their hype.
It's hard to place a ton of blame on Acta; the Nats' overall talent level (Ryan Zimmerman notwithstanding), and particularly their bullpen, is so lacking that no manager was ever going to make this team a winner. Jim Riggleman takes over on an interim basis; last year Riggleman took over the Seattle Mariners after the Mariners began the year 25-47, and Seattle was 36-54 the rest of the way. For Washington to reach 61 wins this season they'd need to finish 35-40.
